epidemic

epidemic

[ep″ĭ-dem´ik]

occuring suddenly in numbers clearly in excess of normal expectancy, in contrast to endemic or sporadic. The term is used especially of infectious diseases but is also applied to any disease, injury, or other health-related event occurring in such outbreaks.

ep·i·dem·ic

(ep'i-dem'ik),

The occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior, or other health-related events clearly in excess of normal expectancy; the word is also used to describe outbreaks of disease in animals or plants. Compare: endemic, sporadic.

epidemic

epidemic

epidemical

1. Spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or a population at the same time: an epidemic outbreak of influenza.

2. Widely prevalent: epidemic discontent.

n.

1. An outbreak of a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and widely.

2. A rapid spread, growth, or development: an unemployment epidemic.

ep′i·dem′i·cal·ly adv.

epidemic

[-dem′ik]

Etymology: Gk, epi + demos, people

1adj, affecting a significantly large number of people at the same time.

2n, a disease that spreads rapidly through a demographic segment of the human population, such as everyone in a given geographic area, a military base, or similar population unit, or everyone of a certain age or sex, such as the children or women of a region.

epidemic

adjective Referring to an epidemic noun The occurrence of more cases of a disease or illness than expected in a given community or region or among a specific group of people over a particular period of time; a wave of infections in a region by an organism with a short generation time; epidemics are usually heralded by an exponential rise in number of cases in time and a decline as susceptible persons are exhausted. See Hidden epidemic, Media epidemic, Pseudoepidemic, Tobacco epidemic. Cf Endemic, Pandemic.

ep·i·dem·ic

(ep'i-dem'ik)

The occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior, or other health-related events clearly in excess of normal expectancy. Compare: endemic, sporadic

[epi- + G. dēmos, the people]

epidemic

The occurrence of a large number of cases of a particular disease in a given population within a period of a few weeks. Epidemics occur when a population contains many susceptible people. This is why epidemics often occur at intervals of several years.

epidemic

the occurrence of many cases of a disease within an area.

Epidemic

A situation where a large number of infections by a particular agent, such as a virus, develops in a short time. The agent is rapidly transmitted to many individuals.

epidemic

disease attacking many within a population simultaneously (number of cases per unit of time)

epidemic,

n disease outbreak that affects more individuals than expected in a population.

ep·i·dem·ic

(ep'i-dem'ik)

Occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior, or other health-related events clearly in excess of normal expectancy.

[epi- + G. dēmos, the people]

epidemic,

adj spreading rapidly and widely among many individuals in a single location or region; illnesses labeled epidemic are those that oc-cur beyond normal expectations and are usually traceable to a single source.

epidemic

a level of disease occurrence in an animal population which is significantly greater than usual; only occasionally present in the population, widely diffused and rapidly spreading. The disease is clustered in space and time. The word has common usage in veterinary science in preference to the more accurate, epizootic.

poisoning by Neotyphodium (Acremonium) coenophialum; called also fescue summer toxicosis.

multiple event epidemic

when the epidemic begins at about the same time in a number of places, e.g. when a poisoned batch of feed is supplied to a number of farms.

point epidemic

when the epidemic begins at one central point, with a large number of animals coming in contact with the source over a short time; a very rapid form of spread with a number of cases presenting with the same stage of the disease at the one time, indicating the single source of the pathogen.

propagated epidemic, propagative epidemic, propagating epidemic

outbreaks in which the disease propagates in one or more initial cases and then spreads to others, a relatively slow method of spread.

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